Two weeks out from Election Day, Democratic East Bay Rep. Pete Stark is apparently feeling so confident about his CD-15 Congressional race that he was seen yesterday dropping his kids off for school — in Annapolis, Maryland.
“I was stunned,” said one parent of a student at the exclusive Key School in Annapolis, who spotted the 20-term Democratic Congressman there this week in the heat of what has been widely characterized as the toughest re-election campaign of his career.
Stark, 81, is facing a tough challenge from Dublin City Councilman and Alameda County prosecutor Eric Swalwell, 31, who came in just seven points behind the dean of the California Congressional delegation in the June primary.
Stark has lived in Annapolis for years with his wife, Deborah and their three minor children, who attend the school. The caller — who spoke on the condition of anonymity — said that on Tuesday, he noticed a car with distinctive identifying California Congressional license plates on the grounds.
“I looked over and saw it wasn’t his wife…it was Stark,” said the Key School parent, who also has a connection to DC politics. “I mean, I’m a Republican, and I don’t even have a dog in this fight…but isn’t this a tough race for him?,” the parent asked.
Uh, definitely.
We haven’t seen any polls, but fellow Democrat Swalwell’s campaign boasts he and his volunteers have contacted 70,000 homes in the 15th Congressional district — many of them walking door to door — in the last months.
The heavily Democratic district encompasses a swath of the East Bay from Livermore, Dublin and Danville to Union City, Newark and down to Fremont.
But not Annapolis, last we knew.
Michael Terris, the Congressman’s campaign spokesman, said Stark “was visiting with his young kids over the weekend and returns to the district shortly. He will be out campaigning, talking to voters and helping Get-Out-the Vote for election day.”